We curate a digest of the latest news in our field for advocates, policymakers, community coalitions and all who work toward shaping policies and practices to effectively prevent substance use and treat addiction.
A bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Youth Drug Prevention is in the works, and Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) says preventionists need to urge their local members of Congress to join. Prevention advocates can use the CapWiz system to find and contact legislators.
The caucus was cofounded by Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.).
In another step in their drive for legitimacy, medical-marijuana workers in Oakland, Calif., have joined a local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. "Medical cannabis industry workers" at a half-dozen sites -- including the prominent Oaksterdam University -- have voted to join the Retail, Statewide Agriculture, Food Processing and Community Patient Care Union, UFCW Local 5.
Something called the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) -- which claims to be "the nation’s largest non-profit, non-partisan coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims, and concerned citizens united for justice" -- apparently feels that Big Tobacco needs police protection from bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently detailed a debate among doctors focusing on the question of whether a patient called "Mr. Q" should continue to consume moderate amounts of alcohol for health reasons. The 10-page article from Kenneth J. Mukumal, M.D., focuses on issues discussed at Grand Rounds at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston on Jan. 15, 2009.
Advocates in the smallest state have big plans: New report outlines 12 steps toward closing the treatment gap in Rhode Island ... In California, marijuana prices are dropping as legal use of the drug rises ...
Hazelden has unveiled a new online screening tool for consumers called About My Drinking. Visitors to the website who answer 18 questions can get a personalized assessment of their current alcohol and other drug use and -- if necessary -- a referral to a Hazelden addiction counselor ...
Michelle Durst, a former staffer on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and more recently the deputy director of government affairs at the American Psychiatric Association, has been named the new Director of Public Policy at the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD).
The Whopper Bar in Miami’s South Beach is exactly what it sounds like -- a place where you can get a beer along with your Burger King sandwich. The new fast-food concept opened in February -- it’s the first BK to sell alcohol in the U.S., though a couple of similar outlets are operating overseas.
How big a problem is addiction in your community? The latest report won’t provide all the answers, but it will give you a snapshot of treatment admissions -- if you live in one of the 27 communities where data was collected.
Hollywood’s current poster child for untreated addiction, actress Lindsay Lohan, has been ordered by a Los Angeles judge to wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet, attend alcohol education classes, and submit to random weekly drug tests.
No surprise here: report finds wide variances in alcohol, tobacco, other drug use among Asian-Americans ? Hospital admissions for heart attacks would drop by 18,000 if all states banned indoor smoking, AHA estimates ?
Some states may say that marijuana is medicine, but the VA is having none of that: doctors affiliated with the federal veteran’s health program have been barred from recommending medical marijuana to patients ... Meeting with the enemy: the head of the FDA’s new tobacco-regulation agency spoke this week at a conference of Big Tobacco execs ...
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